Outlook Mixtape: Going solo

Vera Brandes was 16 and still at school when she first started organising jazz concerts in her home town of Cologne, Germany. In her Mum's fur coat, big colourful glasses and brimming with confidence she looked like she belonged on the scene. Aged 18, she heard the acclaimed US jazz pianist Keith Jarrett was looking to perform in Cologne. Vera ended up organising the gig. It was to be a totally improvised, solo performance with just Keith and a piano. The venue was booked, the concert had sold out and Keith had arrived. But when he got to the venue, he found on stage an old rehearsal piano with broken strings, sticky keys and malfunctioning pedals – it was unplayable. The story of how a musical masterpiece was created out of that seemingly impossible situation has become legendary. The recording of Keith Jarrett's performance that night, simply called the Köln Concert, became the biggest-selling solo piano album of all time.

When Tom Robinson was 14 years old he made a decision that would dictate the course of his life – that he would become the youngest person to row across the Pacific Ocean. He trained as a boat builder and handcrafted his boat from scratch. He named her Maiwar after the local indigenous name for the Brisbane River which he rowed on every day to travel to and from school. In 2022, aged 23, Tom set off from Peru. The subsequent 14 months involved blissful solitude, broken only by a warm welcome on one of the world's most remote islands, flying fish that landed in his lap and passing turtles. And then came the freak wave that left him stranded on the upturned hull of his boat for hours, with no idea of when, or even if, rescue would come.

Presenter: India Rakusen
Producer: May Cameron

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(Photo: A transparent 60-minute cassette tape on a white background with a white label with the words: The Outlook Mixtape. Credit: Getty Images)